Heating systems that vaporize fluids containing aromatic substances or active substances, for example, for repelling insects such as mosquitoes, are known. Such fluids containing an active substance are vaporized, for example, with a wick which protrudes out of a container filled with the fluid and heated by a heating unit positioned at the end of the wick.
PTC heating elements are used predominantly for heating systems that vaporize fluids containing an active substance. In that case, heating is usually effected by planar PTC heating elements, in particular by PTC heating elements formed as disks or rectangular elements and arranged between contact plates in a housing made of plastic or ceramic.
To generate the heat required for vaporization, an appropriately high temperature has to be achieved at the wick, there being no direct contact for a good heat transfer on account of an annular gap, which is required to form convection action, between the wick and the heating unit. In the majority of cases, heat generated by a PTC heating element is transferred to a heat conductor, which can surround the wick and which can in turn heat the wick. As a result, it is necessary to heat the PTC heating element to a temperature which lies considerably above the temperature required for vaporization at the wick.
The disadvantage of the current applications is, therefore, a low degree of efficiency on account of the unfavorable surface-to-volume ratio of the PTC ceramic and the arrangement of the PTC heating element at a great distance from the actual heat transfer surface. This usually has the effect that considerably higher heating powers have to be provided and/or compromises are necessary in the structural design.
It could therefore be helpful to provide a heating module and a vaporization apparatus having a heating module.